Natural History of East Finmark. 343 



holtklubben and Syltefjordklubben. The high cliffs were 

 perfectly white with Larus tridactylus, and when a gun was 

 fired from the steamer to arouse them, tiie clouds upon clouds 

 of these gulls and other sea-fowl which filled the air were 

 simply astonishing. Two islands at Vardo are also great 

 breeding-places. 



Vadso is an excellent dredging-station, and the fauna, 

 whether of tide-marks, of shallow depths, or of deep water in 

 the middle of the Varanger Fiord, is most interesting. Never- 

 theless, we were glad to leave it. The inn was miserable, the 

 place horrid to a degree. The cod brought in here in vast 

 quantity are disembowelled and their heads cut off, and while 

 the fish are hung up on linos to dry the refuse is left rotting 

 on the ground, until it is gathered up in carts and carried to 

 the fish guano manufactory to be boiled down. The stench 

 from the chimney of that manufactory was unbearable. 

 Herr Schneider suggested that we should cross the Varanger 

 Fiord to Sydvaranger, in the hope of being able to find 

 quarters with a landowner at whose house he had previously 

 stayed when on an entomological expedition. This we did, 

 and in the hospitable and commodious house of Herr H. 

 Figenschou found ourselves in the lap of luxury for so out- 

 landish a place. Here was every comfort and kind attention 

 from oiir good host and his wife, with excellent food — though, 

 of course, fresh meat was not to be expected every day, where 

 it must of necessity be home-killed. " Kirchenes " with its 

 owner's family and its guests — for there were several others 

 besides ourselves — can never be forgotten. 



Here at Sydvaranger we were within 7 miles of Russia. 

 All fellow voyagers had been left behind, and among these 

 had been some most interesting companions. During tiie 

 short summer montlis many of the government officials appear 

 to go to the furthest north to carry out their inspections. 

 Thus, before coming to Sydvaranger we had met the Harbour 

 Director, the Inspector of Fisheries of Norway, the Inspector 

 of Inland Fisheries of Finland, the head of the Geological 

 Survey, the Professor of Chemistry, Herr Svend Foyn (tiie 

 great whale-hunter), and others of interest, besides English 

 salmon-fishers, for the rivers of East Finmark are famous for 

 their salmon. 



Sydvaranger is, however, beyond the range of ordinary or 

 almost any travellers. Ornithologists have been there ; ento- 

 mologists, especially my friend Herr Schneider, have done 

 excellent work in the district ; botanists have added species to 

 the Norwegian flora and worked well there ; but the only 



2G* 



